A fire involving hundreds of hay bales took two days to fully extinguish and is considered “suspicious,” according to Rocky View County Fire Services (RVCFS) District Chief Dax Huba.
“It’s suspicious in nature because there’s no reason those bales should have started (on fire). They were this year’s bales. They were fresh. From what we understand, the farmer had just moved them into that position to get them ready for transport,” he said. “Unfortunately, every bale was lost.”
The fire, which was almost 100 yards long, happened in a farmer’s field at Range Road 21 and Township Road 282 southwest of Crossfield, and involved 200 to 300 large, round hay or straw bales, according to Huba.
“They were about ten to 15 feet off the road because we can’t leave an unattended fire blowing smoke across the road,” he said.
Huba said after extinguishing as much as they could and making the area safe for passersby, firefighters stayed on site and on standby for the next two days to ensure the massive fire was completely out.
“We had volunteers work the fire over the course of about two days. The problem is, with so much hay you really can’t extinguish it without huge amounts of water and without making a huge mess,” Huba said. “Being that far away from any sort of real, stable, significant water source, the decision was made by myself and the fire chiefs that we were just going to control this burn.
“With the help of Rocky View County Peace Officers, we shut down Range Road 21 from Friday evening until Saturday afternoon. That was to keep the public safe.”
Huba said motorists traveling in the vicinity of the fire would have experienced visibility issues because of the plumes of smoke produced.
“It would be really easy for someone driving in the smoke to cause an accident or hit the ditch. We just don’t want people driving in that smoke,” he said.
High winds also helped to fan the flames and dissipate the smoke.
Firefighters from stations in Madden, Bearspaw, Balzac and Crossfield responded to the scene.
According to Huba, after the initial attack was completed, at least three firefighters were on scene to monitor the situation and to allow the fire to burn out in a controlled manner.
Determining the source of the fire is almost impossible given the size and the material involved, according to Huba.
“We really can’t find a starting point. It looks like the whole line was lit at the same time,” he said. “The problem with these straw fires is if someone takes the time to light it with a lighter, it doesn’t leave any evidence.”
